Progressive Labor Party on Race & Racism

Progressive Labor Party (PLP) fights to destroy capitalism and the dictatorship of the capitalist class. We organize workers, soldiers and youth into a revolutionary movement for communism.

Only the dictatorship of the working class — communism — can provide a lasting solution to the disaster that is today’s world for billions of people. This cannot be done through electoral politics, but requires a revolutionary movement and a mass Red Army led by PLP.

Worldwide capitalism, in its relentless drive for profit, inevitably leads to war, fascism, poverty, disease, starvation and environmental destruction. The capitalist class, through its state power — governments, armies, police, schools and culture — maintains a dictatorship over the world’s workers. The capitalist dictatorship supports, and is supported by, the anti-working-class ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism, individualism and religion.

While the bosses and their mouthpieces claim “communism is dead,” capitalism is the real failure for billions worldwide. Capitalism returned to Russia and China because socialism retained many aspects of the profit system, like wages and privileges. Russia and China did not establish communism.

Communism means working collectively to build a worker-run society. We will abolish work for wages, money and profits. Everyone will share in society’s benefits and burdens.

Communism means abolishing racism and the concept of “race.” Capitalism uses racism to super-exploit black, Latino, Asian and indigenous workers, and to divide the entire working class.

Communism means abolishing the special oppression of women — sexism — and divisive gender roles created by the class society.

Communism means abolishing nations and nationalism. One international working class, one world, one Party.

Communism means that the minds of millions of workers must become free from religion’s false promises, unscientific thinking and poisonous ideology. Communism will triumph when the masses of workers can use the science of dialectical materialism to understand, analyze and change the world to meet their needs and aspirations.

Communism means the Party leads every aspect of society. For this to work, millions of workers — eventually everyone — must become communist organizers. Join Us!

CHICAGO, February 20—A Progressive Labor Party study group about sexism led to a mass anti-sexist action of supporting nursing home workers on strike. Both study and action affirmed the line that Black women leadership is key to communist revolution. To create a fighting communist Party, theory needs to lead to practice, and that practice needs to influence future theory. Comrades and friends here have been holding a study group about the roots of sexism and the history of struggle against it. Our goal is to win more workers to the truth that capitalism has no solution for sexism and exploitation. Only mass international communist revolution can abolish the inequality that class society creates between women and men. Anti-sexism study groupIn the first study group, we focused on former Communist Party USA member Angela Davis. This proved to be a good decision; it gave some historical background on the struggle of the 1960s and 1970s. We analyzed how anti-capitalist messages and actions from radicals have over time been completely diluted as these same “militants” made more and more compromises with capitalism. In the case of Angela Davis, study group participants noted how her speech at the last year’s Women’s March, Davis used the term “resistance” a dozen times, versus using the term “capitalism” only once. Angela Davis years ago accepted a position at University of California, Santa Cruz and Rutgers University and denounced herself from any commitment to communist politics and class consciousness. This one-time lefty demonstrated this when she endorsed Barack Obama for president. This was expected, as Davis had sold out to the liberal Democratic bosses long time ago. We contrasted her methods of pandering to her liberal phony-left base with our own understanding that communists need to spread revolutionary ideas among the working class. Those ideas will clearly draw the connections between sexist ideology and inequality and the capitalist system’s need to divide workers everywhere for maximum profits.Claudia Jones, Black women key

The bourgeoisie is fearful of the militancy of the [Black] woman, and for good reason. The capitalists know, far better than many progressives seem to know, that once Negro women begin to take action, the militancy of the whole [Black] people, and thus of the anti-imperialist coalition, is greatly enhanced. Viewed in this light, it is not accidental that the American bourgeoisie has intensified its oppression, not only of the [Black] people in general, but of [Black] women in particular.—Claudia Jones

We also discussed Claudia Jones’ An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women (1949). This article detailed the super-exploitation of Black women, and called for more attention to be spent organizing them. Through the discussion we added Black and Latin immigrant women workers to the group of the most exploited in the U.S. In this article Claudia Jones criticized the Communist Party USA for failing to understand and organize among Black women. She stated that in order for any revolution in the to occur, Black women must play a significant leadership role. We discussed how our Party upholds this commitment and carries forward Jones’ analysis to this day in our emphasis in recruiting and taking leadership from Black and immigrant workers. Given their historical and current status as the most oppressed and exploited section of the international working class, their insights and hatred of capitalism is key to revolution. A movement without Black workers is a failed movement. Theory leads to struggle At the study group about Claudia Jones, comrades and friends were inspired to put the theory of organizing into practice. The very next day nursing home workers, 70 percent of whom were Black women, were going on a one-day strike against horrible work conditions (including stripping long-time workers of their seniority) and a fair contract. We chatted with workers and distributed CHALLENGE to strikers on the picket line. Our PLP contingent was made of almost entirely of people who had attended the anti-sexism study group. It was a freezing Chicago day, but we knew that staying home was not an option. The workers may strike again soon if owner Israel Davis fails to cease his illegal labor practices and to bargain a fair contract.Our second opportunity to put theory into practice came during this year’s Women’s March. This contingent too was primarily from the study group. We called out the Democratic Party for using sexism as a platform to build their ranks, and promoting the elections—not fightback—as a solution to sexist oppression. We were well received. Many workers, most of whom were women, took flyers and CHALLENGE. Our call to destroy capitalism with communist revolution was meet with applause.Communists belong in the mass struggle Sexism is a notorious tool used to divide and oppress working-class people. It is used by the bosses to exploit workers on all fronts—men, women, straight, gay, and transgender. And so, it must be fought on all fronts. Through practice we learn how to better fight it, and through theory we learn how to better understand it. Theory and practice are linked, and should never be separated. Understanding this helps us fight for the world workers deserve—a communist one. Join us in this fight.